Kittanning (village)

Kittanning was a major village of the Lenni Lenape Indians, on the Allegheny River and was located near the present-day town of the same name in Kittanning Pennsylvania. The village was on the west end of the Kittanning Trail, an Indian path that led from the Ohio River through the Allegheny Mountains to the Susquehanna River, and was inhabited by members of the Lenape and Shawnee. The word comes from the Unami Lenape language meaning - At large current. In 1756, the village of about 300-400 inhabitants, one of the largest Indian settlements west of the mountains. Kittanning was settled in 1724, when the Lenape retreated before the rapidly expanding white population in eastern Pennsylvania. Kittanny became famous in the French and Indian War, when the village was the starting point of a series of attacks by the Lenape and Shawnee among its leaders Shingas and Captain Jacobs on colonists in Pennsylvania. The colonial governments of Pennsylvania and Verginia then translated from premiums for Indian scalps and prisoners. The Pennsylvania militia under Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong led a counter-attack, in which the village was destroyed on September 8, 1756.

The destruction of Kittanning was hailed as a major victory in Pennsylvania and John Armstrong is honored to this day as a hero of Kittanning. He and his men were given the special scalp - premium that had been exposed to the head of Captain Jacobs. However, it was a victory with Limitations: The attackers have recorded far more losses than their opponents and most Indians escaped, and with them almost all their white captives. The destruction Kittannings led to the intensification of the war on the development boundary and the Indian raids increased in hardness.